OPENING LINES GETTING STARTED: WHAT ANY MUNICIPALITY CAN DO NOW ABOUT EPA’S PFAS RULING FOR WATER SYSTEMS Source: americancityandcounty.com, Dan Schneider, First Published Oct 09, 2024 There is help for municipalities and community water providers overwhelmed by the April 2024 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announcement of its requirement that water systems remove six “forever chemicals” present in drinking water supplies across the country.The U.S. Geological Survey indicates as much as 45 percent of current drinking water supplies are impacted by PFAS. With three years to complete monitoring and, if there is an exceedance, another two years to install equipment designed to filter out PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl) substances, there is a challenge in just knowing where to begin. However, there are two initial steps municipalities of any size can take to start to get a handle on this environmental mandate. The first step involves getting help to secure a portion of the multi-billion-dollar funding available to address PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking and wastewater. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes $10 billion in grants that primarily flow through states, is just one of the funding sources. The second step acknowledges municipalities are passive recipients of materials carrying PFAS and are in the unwelcome position of having to invest significant money and manpower to monitor and treat contaminants produced by and received from other entities. As part of the process, a practical, data-driven approach to build lines of evidence as to whether municipally driven activities or those from other sources (industrial, etc.) may have contributed to PFAS found in a community’s drinking water could be considered. These two items are discussed further below. A FUNDING ROADMAP While funding for water systems to better understand how to achieve compliance with recent EPA PFAS regulations is available, time is of the essence.These initial funding channels have a sunset, while the EPA ruling is forever. Understandably, municipalities are hesitant. No one entity in the funding chain that moves PFAS-dedicated Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dollars to positive community impact has figured out how to streamline the process and water system operators, especially for smaller systems, say they don’t have the resources or expertise to go after funding. Estimates for the cost of compliance—testing as well as the installation and maintenance of new treatment technologies— vary widely. Depending on what entity is sourced (such as the U.S. EPA, the American Water Works Association, the Environmental Business Journal), the estimates vary so widely as to be unhelpful. In any case, costs to most water and wastewater treatment facilities could be in the millions. Help is at hand.There are several organizations with qualified PFAS experts who understand the complex funding process. They know that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $10 billion is available through fiscal year 2026 and is administered via grants through each state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Emerging Contaminants – Small Disadvantaged Communities Grants program. These consultants can take on the writing of the differing program grant applications and typically do so at no cost to the municipality. If the grant is successful and recipient municipalities bid out aspects of the grant implementation, 9 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 10
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